L-R: Dr. Robert Steffen, Dr. Pierre Hanekom, Dr. Eben Strydom, Dr. Michael Stoll Dr. Richardson put in a call for help to Dr. Wingate in Melfort. Meanwhile, she called in two nurse practitioners who had training in the ER and trauma nursing. “You just switch into have-to-do-it mode,” she said. “I phoned Dr. Jordan Wingate after I got here and I found out that lots of physicians were going to be coming to Tisdale from Melfort, but I didn’t know how many patients Melfort was going to get, so I didn’t want all of Melfort to come here. “I just phoned Jordan to say, ‘We’re going to be getting more casualties than we can manage and if they could spare staff to help we’d appreciate it.’ ” Dr. Wingate had also finished work for the day when Dr. Richardson called. He could sense the tension in her voice. “Tess is South African and she’s seen a lot of stuff during her training. But I could tell she was concerned, greatly concerned,” Dr. Wingate said. He knew he would be going to Tisdale and called Dr. Strydom, who was just leaving Saskatoon. When he got to the Melfort Union Hospital, people were already mobilizing. Dr. Danielle Desjardins was on the phone bringing the team together. “Melfort has been through some smaller scenarios than this,” said Dr. Wingate. “I’ve been here 20 years. We’ve had a couple of times – only a couple – where basically everybody’s had to come in. We do have a disaster plan which very infrequently gets used, but I found that from a Melfort
standpoint everything was going smoothly, but I left. They were set up and ready to go.” In Tisdale, the first two patients were coming through the door. The second was critically injured and consumed most of Dr. Richardson’s attention for the rest of the night. In the meantime, Dr. Wingate drove with Dr. Pierre Hanekom to Tisdale. By then, Drs. Richardson and Khan were with patients, and more began arriving, some critically injured. When it became apparent that Tisdale and Nipawin hospitals would see the bulk of the injured, more physicians from Melfort made their way to Tisdale, including Drs. Robert Steffen and Olabode Ige, who travelled together. Dr. Strydom, who drove straight from Saskatoon to the Melfort Union Hospital, saw no patients were heading that way yet. He also continued on to Tisdale with Dr. Michael Stoll, who had just arrived at the hospital too.
‘Your team just formed out of the chaos’ “Pierre and I walked in, we introduced ourselves, and they took us right into the rooms,” said Dr. Wingate, describing the scene. “We gowned up. The team was working very well. They have a strong nursing staff there and strong physicians. I was using the trauma room and when I left that room and took another patient, four or five people just came with me. “You didn’t have to ask. All of a sudden your team just formed out of the chaos, essentially, and we went together
SMA DIGEST | SUMMER 2018
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